


Thinking in the Moment

by torigates



Category: Pushing Daisies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:19:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Joseph was dead. John Joseph <i>was dead</i>, and there was no way Olive was going to use the money she earned from his death. Not for anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thinking in the Moment

  
At this very moment, Olive Snook, ex-jockey and recently unemployed was opening a safety deposit box.

John Joseph was dead. John Joseph _was dead_ , and there was no way Olive was going to use the money she earned from his death. Not for anything.

The facts were these. Olive Snook age twenty-eight years four months six days and thirty-two minutes had left her life as a professional jockey behind. Not able to live with the guilt that one of her friends had deliberately caused the death of John Joseph, _her_ John Joseph, she knew she couldn’t live that life anymore. It did, however, leave her penniless, unemployed and homeless. Not to mention alone.

Contents safely locked up in her new safety deposit box, Olive trudged down the street. Normally Olive wasn’t a trudger, but she figured the special circumstances, the triple threat if you will, gave her permission to trudge. Just this once.

It was like a scene out of a movie. The sky opened up, and the rain poured down on Olive. Hard.

It took Olive exactly five point seven seconds before she started running. In those five point seven seconds Olive contemplated if making a run for it was really worth it. Having lost everything, she wondered what else exactly could go wrong. But the rain was cold, and eventually Olive decided staying out in the rain would do no one any good. Especially not her.

The first place Olive came to was shaped like a pie. Ordinarily Olive would have found this charming. Not today. These weren’t ordinary circumstances, and Olive was in no mood to be charmed. She just wanted somewhere warm and dry where she could wait out the storm.

Olive sat down at the counter. “Coffee,” she barked without looking up. Ordinarily Olive wouldn’t bark orders at anyone, especially innocent bakery servers, but like she said, these weren’t ordinary circumstances.

A cup of coffee was placed in front of her nose, which only made Olive feel worse for her previous barking. “Sorry,” she said, and looked up. And continued to look up. Oh.

Standing in front of her was a very tall man. A very cute, very tall man. Being around jockeys for the last eight years, Olive had forgotten how much she liked tall men. Here, standing in front of her with his hands behind his back was a very cute, very tall man. He smiled, and oh dear. There were dimples.

“Sorry,” Olive repeated. “For the barking, I mean.”

The man smiled and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. The barking. I mean. Not that I thought you were barking. I mean. Anyone who got caught in the rain would be a little grumpy. Not that I thought you were grumpy or anything.” The very tall, very cute man trailed off, blushing a little.

Olive smiled, her earlier bad mood gone. “That’s okay. I was the rude one,” she paused. “I’m Olive.”

The man smiled again, and Olive just knew those dimples would be the death of her. “I’m Ned.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Ned,” Olive said holding out her hand. Ned stared at her hand, somewhat surprised. Eventually he took her hand and shook it. It was a nice handshake, and Olive felt herself swoon a little.

After a moment, Ned pulled his hand away, and put in behind his back. “So, uh—what were you doing out in the rain?”

“I just moved here,” Olive told him.

“Really?” Ned asked.

Olive paused. “Well, no. Not really, I suppose. A person needs a place to live to have officially moved to a place or not moved to a place. And they would probably need a job as well, to pay for said place to live and food, and friends to visit said place and share said food. Without all that a person is nothing but a homeless, unemployed, friendless,” Olive trailed off for a moment, “Person,” she finished.

Ned stared at her, and wasn’t that just _great_. Olive met a very tall, very cute man, and managed to freak him out within the first five minutes.

“Sorry,” she muttered again, looking down, her bad mood quickly returning.

Ned didn’t say anything, but Olive could feel him staring at her. Eventually she peaked up at him through her bangs. He was still staring at her. She felt herself turning red.

“Would you like some pie?” Ned asked her.

“What?” Olive asked.

“Pie,” Ned hesitantly. “This is a pie shop.”

Olive looked around sheepishly. “Right,” she said. “Pie. Sure.”

Ned put a slice of pie in front of her, and it smelled delicious, warm and fruity. There was a scoop of vanilla ice cream next to it on the plate.

“On the house,” Ned told her.

“Can you do that?” Olive asked. “Won’t your boss get mad?”

“Well he might,” Ned said slowly. “If he weren’t me. I mean, I am he. The boss.”

Olive stared at him.

“I’m the owner,” Ned clarified.

Olive took a bite of her pie, and it was possibly the most delicious pie she had ever eaten. “Oh my god,” she said. “Did you make this?”

Ned blushed, nodded and gave her a small smile.

“It’s really good,” Olive said taking another bite.

Ned smiled ducking his head. He stood in front of her watching her eat for a while. Ordinarily, Olive felt someone watching her eat would make her feel her uncomfortable. There was something about this place, about Ned, if she was being honest with herself, that made her feel at ease.

Ned coughed, and Olive looked up from her pie. He blushed under her gaze, which Olive found completely charming.

“If—” he cut himself off for a moment. “I could use some help here at the Pie Hole, if—” he stopped himself again.

“Are you offering me a job?” she asked.

Ned ducked his head again. “You said you weren’t working. I really do need some help here, and if you wanted to be that person,” he trailed off again.

“You _are_ offering me a job!” she exclaimed. “How do you know I’m not crazy?”

Ned seemed to consider this. “I guess I don’t know you’re not crazy. You don’t seem crazy, even though you came in here demanding coffee. But that could just be a sign of a bad day, and doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re crazy. You did sort of go on a tirade about your current unemployment, but then again I am talking a lot right now, so how do you know I’m not crazy for that matter?”

Olive thought about it. She and Ned were complete strangers, but something about him made her want to trust him. Maybe it was the way he kept his hands behind his back, or the way he was constantly ducking his head. Or his height. He was _very_ tall.

“Okay,” she said eventually. “But that doesn’t solve my homeless problem. Or my friendless problem.”

Ned smiled. “Would it be creepy if I said I could be your friend? Though technically I suppose I would be your employer, but I don’t think there’s anything stopping us from having both a professional employer-employee relationship and a personal friend-friend relationship.”

Olive couldn’t help but return his smile. Ned was sweet, cute, tall, and offering her a job and a friendship. She couldn’t turn that down. “Thank you,” she said. “I would hug you right now, but there’s a counter in between us, and I’m not sure if our personal, not to mention professional relationship is at the hugging stage yet.”

“That’s probably best,” Ned said. “I’m not much of a hugger.”

That much was obvious to Olive. The way he kept his hands behind his back, and was hunched in on himself made her think Ned didn’t do much touching of any kind. That didn’t stop her from thinking about all the touching she would like to do to him, professional… and otherwise.

“That just leaves me the tiny problem of not having any place to live.” Olive sighed.

“Well…” Ned said.

“Don’t ask me to move in with you,” Olive told him. “I’m a trusting person, but even for me, that’s going too far.”

Ned blushed again, and it almost made Olive want to reconsider her previous statement.

“No, I wasn’t going to say that. Not that I don’t think you would be a wonderful roommate, but like you said we just met, and that would be going a little too far, plus I’m not what you would call good roommate material, anyway. But what I was going to say is that I think there are a few apartments for rent in my building and I could give you my landlord’s phone number if you wanted.” He coughed.

Olive was quickly becoming very endeared with Ned’s way of rambling on when he got nervous.

“Why Ned!” she exclaimed. “You must be my knight in shining armour.”

Ned smiled, but it quickly faded when he saw the look on Olive’s face. Talking about knights in shining armour had reminded her of horses, which of course reminded her of John Joseph. Who was dead. Olive was a horrible person. John Joseph hadn’t even been dead a week, and here she was flirting with the first man she came across.

“What’s wrong?” Ned asked.

Olive shook her head. “Oh nothing,” she said. “I was just thinking of something, but it’s not important.”

Ned looked unconvinced, but didn’t press the matter. “Here,” he said writing something down on a napkin. “Why don’t you go talk to my landlord. Tell her I sent you. I’m sure she can work something out with you.”

Olive couldn’t believe this complete stranger was doing so much to help her. Less than an hour ago, she had no place to live, no job and no friends. Now here she was with a prospect on living arrangements, employed, and with a possible friend. She could feel herself getting choked up, so she quickly jumped off her stool, ran around the counter and hugged Ned around his waist.

Ned seemed completely shocked, and didn’t move for several moments. Eventually he hesitantly patted her on the back. “You really shouldn’t be behind the counter,” he told her.

“I’m an employee now,” she retorted.

Ned chuckled.

“I think I’m going to enjoy working with you, Olive,” Ned told her.

Olive grinned. “Thank you, Ned. I can’t tell you how much this all means to me,” she said sincerely.

Ned looked down. “Let’s just say I know what’s it’s like to be alone and friendless. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

Something about the way he said alone and friendless, made Ned look like a little boy. Olive wanted to hug him again, but managed to control herself. “Well,” she said brightly. “Now neither one of us is alone nor friendless.”

Ned smiled again.

“Can I have another piece of pie?” Olive asked.

“Sure,” Ned said, and set about fixing her another plate.

With a plate of warm pie, cold ice cream and a tall, handsome man in front of her, it was hard for Olive to be upset about anything.

After eating her pie, Olive set out to try and secure a place to live.

Ned’s landlord was a petite elderly lady, who, upon hearing that Ned had sent her, offered her a place to live immediately.

Olive wanted to go back to the Pie Hole, talk with Ned, maybe even start working. She was eager to start her new life. She was ready to leave her old life behind her. Start over. But she didn’t want to seem over enthusiastic, so she decided to go exploring. See what her new home was like.

She resolved to be happy here, and put John Joseph out of her mind. It was best not to think of those things.

 

Exactly seven days, fourteen hours and twelve minutes later, Olive was working the closing shift with Ned.

She had quickly become an adept waitress, or pie connoisseur as she preferred to think of it. The secret was devoting herself completely to one specific pie flavour, and loving it with all her heart. That way the customers would love it too.

(Unbeknownst to the Piemaker, Olive was quickly beginning to apply the same philosophy to him. It had so far been unsuccessful.)

“You can head out now, Olive,” Ned told her. “I can finish up here on my own.”

Olive smiled. Every night Ned made the exact same offer, and every night she said the exact same thing. “That’s okay, Ned. I don’t mind.”

He smiled back at her, and turned back to preparing the fruit for tomorrow’s pies. Olive continued stacking the chairs.

After sweeping the floor, Olive sat down on a stool at the counter. The very same stool she had sat on the first time she came to the Pie Hole and the Piemaker offered her a job.

“How long have you been doing this?” she asked him.

“Making pies? Since I was eight years old.”

“No, I mean how long have you owned this place?”

Ned shrugged his shoulders. “A while.”

“And you did everything by yourself? Making the pies, serving customers, cleaning,” she trailed off.

Ned just shrugged again. “Well, yeah.”

“I don’t know where you found the time to do everything. Even with two of us, it takes up most of the day.”

Ned was silent for a few moments. “I didn’t get out much.”

“That definitely does not surprise me,” she said.

Ned turned back to his fruit, and Olive took advantage of the opportunity to study her employer. Neighbour. Friend. Crush. Olive was still a little fuzzy on the exact details of their relationship.

Try as she might, Olive just couldn’t understand why a man as kind and generous as Ned (not to mention handsome) would want to isolate himself as much as he seemed to. Olive hadn’t seen or heard of any friends, family members, and she was his only colleague. And yet, Ned continually withdrew from her and everyone around him. She couldn’t figure him out.

“Do you have any friends?” Olive asked.

“What?”

“Friends? Family? Acquaintances? What do you do with your spare time?”

“Oh, well, the Pie Hole keeps me very busy. And of course there’s Digby,” he said.

“Digby?” she asked.

“My dog,” he paused. “And there’s you, Olive.”

“Don’t you get lonely?” she asked. Olive it had been fourteen days, six hours and forty-seven minutes since Olive had left her life as a profession jockey behind her. She was terribly lonely.

“I… don’t know,” Ned said eventually.

Olive didn’t press the issue. “Well, you’ve got me too,” she told him.

Ned smiled. “I think I’m done for the night,” he told her a few minutes later. “Let’s go home.”

Olive smiled, and grabbed her bag and coat.

“I don’t think I’ve thanked you properly,” she said as they stood outside their respective doors.

“Thanked me?” Ned asked.

“For saving me. I walked into a random bakery on the street with nothing, and walked out with a job, an apartment,” she paused. “And a friend.”

Ned smiled at her, hands behind his back.

“I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”

“You’re welcome,” he said simply.

Neither spoke for a long moment. Unknown to Olive, if the Piemaker had done what he was thinking in that moment, that is to say, leaned forward and kissed Olive, their lives would have gone very differently.

Had the Piemaker, called Ned done what he was thinking in that moment, leaned forward and kissed Olive, they would have spent their lives happily baking pies and living together.

But the Piemaker, having spent too many years alone and friendless himself, did not do what he was thinking, and indeed never would. At least, not before a girl named Charlotte called Chuck came along and stole his heart (as much as she could steal it, having belonged to her all along).

No, in that moment, the Piemaker wished Olive a good night, went into his own apartment and shut the door, leaving Olive standing alone in the hallway. After another moment, Olive entered her own apartment, shut the door and leaned against it for a long time, letting it support her weight. 


End file.
